The entry to the Cobb house was what first hooked me on the place. It was one of only a couple places where you could still feel how regal this place truly was when it was originally built. The original fireplace and pocket doors remain, as does the beautiful stairway.

We have changed the entrance a little. The doorway to the former master bedroom has been removed and we will be closing off the area below the stairway for a walk-in pantry that is now accessible from the kitchen. Here are some pics that hopefully show what we’re doing:

If you would like to see the entry I made previously about the entrance w/ more pictures – click HERE. Also – it’s worth mentioning that we got a STEAL of a deal on our plumbing fixtures. We got really high quality products – claw foot tub, many oil rubbed bronze fixtures, Kohler sinks, etc etc – for an amazing deal from faucet.com. It was about a 1/3rd of the price of the local big box stores or show rooms. And all the stuff came just as ordered. I was so impressed with our salesperson that I’m going to give her some props here. If you need to order any fixtures, contact Megan Bedford for help. She was spectacular and even helped me get deeper discounts b/c of our large order to get us in our budget! Thanks Megan (pronouced Mee-gan FYI). All fixtures and accessories in the house for $7K including shipping! Amazing.

What better place to start our grand tour than the front of the home?! 🙂 Here’s a picture of her as the original builder intended:

This beautiful, old home has had her share of stories and problems. None bigger than the “weather that hit her somewhere between 1900-1950. We’re not sure what happened (we hear it was a tornado), but we’re sure that the look of the home took a drastic change after the event. The front porch and turret were blown off the home, and the owners at that time decided – sadly – that it would be better to rebuild the porch as a closed porch instead of the original open design. We do think that the brick foundation is original – it still is that way, only with aluminum storm windows on it instead of the beautiful wood fretwork that once was there. They also decided (sadly) not to rebuild the 2nd story porch off of what was at that time a sitting room. They instead turned that area into another bathroom and put some ugly aluminum windows in the place of two beautiful doors that opened up facing the lake. You can see the new windows above the (now) closed porch. If you look close, you can see where they bricked in the area below the windows. We’ve demoed the wall behind this, so you can see what it looks like on the inside. I think it’s going to look a lot nicer with those doors in place again, don’t you think?!

Here’s what it looks like currently, after these alterations:

As good stewards, we’re hoping to bring the home back more toward the original design – with a few of our own twists on it.

We’re going to leave the porch as is to start with, but we’re brining back the 2nd story porch and doors from what will be the master bathroom. But we’re doing it one better – we’re going to expand the porch up another level to the attic – with the gable coming out of the roof line for a walkout from the room we’re creating up there (more to come in a following post).

The architect took his inspiration from the window on the opposite side of the home. Notice the fretwork on the existing window is the inspiration for the railing on the new window. We’re also going to be adding the scrolled fascia, as pictured below:

So what do you think? Is it going to look as good as the original? Better? We know we’re going to love the view from the porch on the attic… facing the lake! I only hope there’s enough money in the budget to make it happen. Darn money… always seem to need more of it than I have! 🙂 If we manage to get it built, I’ll try to remember to update this post with pictures of the progress on the structure as it goes up.

Well – this week was a biggie for us… we finally have the COMPLETED floor plans in our hands – and they have been submitted to the city for permit approval. I’m going to take you through a detailed explanation of the before and after process that we had to go through with our design team to come to this point. It’s been a really interesting process – and I hope that some of you people out there are able to benefit from our experiences.

This story is just beginning – and we’re very excited to watch as it unfolds. We spent the last several days at home with family. Talking about this has become such a passion that I have to be careful not to go off on tangents – it’s that much fun!

Thanks for your input on the exterior finish. It’s been a tough decision. But my mom really turned the tide last week – she called to mention that there was a show on HGTV’s “Curb Appeal” showing the renovation of an old Queen Anne row house. They decided to paint over the existing paint finish, and it turned out great. The house had a lot of the same characteristics as our house and I think we started to feel comfortable that it will look great with new paint. Don’t hold me to it, but I think that’s what we’re going to end up going – mostly because of the simplicity of it and the cost savings vs. removing the paint!

I’ve really enjoyed the process of blogging about our project. There’s a real sense of community that happens reading about other people’s projects as well. But sometimes it’s hard getting started – and I’ve had plenty of headaches learning how to get the blog set up and looking the way I want it to. Are you a house blogger? Have a current project going on? I’ve been scouring houseblogs.net for ideas for the major spaces we’re remodeling. If you have been to a site you think is good or did a project in your home that we can use for inspiration, leave us a link in the comments!

Thought you might like to see another day’s worth of progress on the house. I’m currently sitting here wanting to hold my head under a pillow while listening to my daughter scream b/c it’s bedtime and she hates sleeping. rage… I wish she would see how beautiful sleep really is!